The Pessimist's Guide to History - by Doris Flexner & Stuart Berg Flexner (Paperback)

About the Book

With a light but informative tone and a handy time line of events, this updated edition takes readers from the Big Bang to the turn of the millennium, with 100 new entries that chronicle the disasters, bad decisions, and evil events that have taken place since September 1991, the release of the first book.

Book Synopsis

The classic look at the past with a very jaundiced eye-now updated with even more disheartening facts!

The original "irreverent jaunt through the catastrophes, cataclysms and outrages that shaped our world" has sold more than 73,000 copies. This updated edition takes us from the Big Bang (it was an explosion, after all) to the turn of the millennium, with more than 10,000 new words and 100 new entries that chronicle the disasters, bad decisions, and downright evil events that have taken place since September 1991 (the last entry in the first book). With a light but informative tone and a handy timeline of events, this is addictively friendly fare for those who want a different--some might argue more intriguing-view of history.

Review Quotes

"A tongue-in-cheek romp through the bleak house of history most textbooks ignore." -- Kenneth C. Davis, author of "Don't Know Much about History""Just for fun, an antidote to humanity's nobler history...entertaining and informative."--"New York Daily News